Year: 2008

  • India Still Shining

    I’d written a post earlier on local sites. Happened to come across another one yesterday. Its called indiashines.com.

    To summarise what the PR note had to say about the site, the need gap identified is a social network plus site which understands the “diverse language, cultural and regional requirements”Ā needs and one that’s therefore customised to Indian needs. Hmm, so what all does it offer? The typical social networking offering of connecting with friends and family and sharing photos, videos etc along with privacy tools, a classifieds (including jobs), options to customize home pages with regional weather, photos, jobs, maps and news. And of course, how can anyone not have blogs? šŸ™‚ They’re saying exactly what you’re thinking – “YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, Craigslist, Flickr, Monster.com combined with the Weather Channel on one website” and localised. And wait, recommend it to friends, and you’ll get a rupee per friend.

    Few small things thatĀ I thought were well done – Ā it automatically took me to a Bangalore page, but with the option to change my city, and thats quite a lot of cities thats listed there. The weather, the map, the profiles are all bangalore. They have done a very decent job on the news, by taking feeds from sites as varied as Techtree, the Hindu, Exchange4Media, HospitalityBizIndia and all Bangalore specific news. All of these worked for Agartala too, so its a pretty good job.

    The photos, musicĀ and videos are a bit dicey- though it changes with cities, the content somehow doesnt match. eg. Tamil movie trailers in Agartala. The classifieds and ‘deals’ haven’t been worked on yet because irrespective of city, apun sirf Mumbai dikhayega!! Thats on the homepage, though. Once inside, it shows local content.

    The community part is very interesting. A small digression, I was able to navigate inside quite easily even without logging in, and that includes browsing profiles. Thankfully, I wasn’t allowed to judge whether they were hot or not (yup, its prominently displayed in the profile) without logging in. The layout andĀ items inside (testimonials, upcoming birthdays etc)Ā reminds me a lot of Orkut. ButĀ hey, they even have a ‘Poke me’ button. But wait, its not just all ‘Add to shopping cart’ from other sites eg. something very interesting i noticed –Ā imagineĀ your blogger accountĀ being connected to Orkut and posts coming in the newsfeed in your profile? Thats something these guys have done. Very interesting.

    Now, while you have groups, the listings and ratings feature in Yahoo Local is not to be found here. But a mashup of this and Yahoo Local (hey, no harm in thinking of possibilities) would create that locality based social networking phenomenon that I’d want to see. Who do you think has better chances at getting there first (humour me, just assume they want to), the above mentioned entities or Tolmolbol?

    until next time, tol mol aur bol šŸ™‚

  • Peer Pressure?

    Yesterday, Contentsutra carried a story about Times Business launching a professional networking site called Peer Power. The post also mentioned that the new site wouldn’t be leveraging Times Jobs.

    Like I commented there, I’m still trying to understand why they are (seemingly) adamant about not leveraging their existing properties in print, on a new media platform. I look at Times Matrimonial vs Simply Marry, Times Ascent vs Times Jobs vs (now) Peer Power, Times Property vs Magic Bricks, and i wonder.

    As Nikhil had replied to my comment there, I’m not even thinking of sales teams… a bit of branding, yes, but not just that. I see a lot of content that the different properties have, I also see the equity they have managed to create, and then I don’t see them leveraging it enough on the www. I somehow can’t agree to the differentiated target audience logic, because even given the ‘Metromonial site’ tag that Simply Marry has, the very fact that the group advertises the net properties heavily on print means that a large proportion of the TG can still be found among the publications’ readers.

    For me, its more of a long term strategy thing. While newspaper readership in India is not going to end in quite a while, new media is definitely on the rise, and the Times Group is in a perfect position to utilise all the properties offline as a bridge to enter the web, simply because it has all the relevant content. So, why do both Times Ascent and Times Jobs exist? Why does Times Property have a fair, why not magic bricks? And if they both do, why separate ones?

    The only reason I can think of is a kind of valuation game which involves a separation of entities in the two media platforms (BCCL and Times Business Solutions). In that case, having synergies between the two sets of properties would work against them, but that still doesn’t answer Times Jobs vs Peer Power. Or does Shine have anything to do with it?

    While on the subject of old and new media, this is a great read. (via this)

    until next time, so, where does this entity fit in?

  • Empty V ?

    Despite myself, and despite ‘knowing’ the result, I actually sat down and watched the entire finale of MTV Roadies 5.0!! No, please don’t judge me, even when i say that i was completely engrossed and matched the MC, BC, F*** (for the tasks) that the participants indulged in, much to my wife’s annoyance, i think. Well, to be fair, won’t seeing people kiss an iguana so that someone else can walk away with the prize money make you talk that lingo?

    Roadies must definitely be attractive to the target audience for it to spawn a total of five versions.Ā  I remember writing a post a while back on MTV’s customised solutions for brands. Roadies is a perfect fit for Hero Honda, and I’m sure Superstar would have bettered Ibibo’s brand recall at least a little bit. And sometimes the reverse happens too, like the ‘hijacking’ of Youngistan on MTV every morning. Everything from the RJ to the ticker screams MTV, even though its a Pepsi catchphrase.

    Meanwhile, this is an interesting point of view on the programming. But I think the programming also shows the evolution of MTV. My first recollection of MTV is a music channel, along with VJ Nonie šŸ™‚ Do i still see music on MTV? Of course, mostly Hindi music, which in itself is a change from the initial English only programming. That, i think is only because it stands for Music Television, for i somehow feel that quite sometime back, MTV changed its core DNA component from music to youth. Maybe, even at the time of origin, music was only the best way to reach out to the youth. And having built a brand like MTV, its really risky to go for a name change.

    MTV now is more a huge bunch of reality shows each giving youth a platform for showcasing their talent or 15 minutes of fame, whichever way you see it, and each working on different verticals – Bollywood (superstar), Adventure(?)(Roadies) It makes sense because music is more of a commodity now, available across multiple platforms, easy to replicate. But continuously shifting gears to keep in touch with the target audience, like MTV seems to be doing, is difficult. Which could be the reason why, (at least to me) Channel V’s attempts with Get Gorgeous have not appealed much. That and the fact that their shows are more based on the VJ, the music remains the same. So, other than, say a V on Campus, its just repackaging. Or maybe that works too?

    until next time, is reality a musical?

    Zemanta Pixie

  • Fairytale Endings

    We hurried, after all it was not everyday that we could listen to a Lord. We didn’t make it early enough because there was already quite a crowd in attendance, most of whom were not pleased to see latecomers trying to squeeze their way in between. The lord came on time, and had his audience spellbound with his anecdotes and immense sense of humour. He promised to autograph every book that his audience had brought, but there was a twist in the tale. The peasants at Landmark wouldn’t let us near unless we’d made a purchase then and there. So we left, with the satisfaction that we at least got to see him.

    But that wasn’t the only reason we left early, we had one more audience left, a Prince, no less – Prince Caspian. There’s a reason why i was eagerly waiting for this film. Unlike the modern day children’s tales of magic, this one is absolutely fairytale. Good and evil are clearly defined and there are no greys in between. It takes you back to a time when you would believe in talking animals, magic, witches, wise kings and all the folk who appear in fairytales in all their innocence. Its a completely different world, and as i read somewhere, some things have to be believed to be seen.

    until next time, back to reality

  • 3 Storys

    I used to visit the place quite regularly when my workplace was around the area, but those were for the executive lunch. Its located off Lavelle road – when coming from MG Road, take the left on to Lavelle Road, and take the right just before the turning towards Airlines Hotel/Corner House.

    3 Storys offers three stories of seating options and specilaises in Goan/Mangalorean/Coorgi/Kerala cuisine. The best thing about this place is that its almost ‘Empirical’ in terms of being able to hog multiple dishes, thanks to the adequate portions and value for money.

    The top floor is a good option if its not raining, but since it was, weĀ opted forĀ the second floor. The seating is very comfortable on all the floors and has options for largish groups as well as cosy couples šŸ™‚

    We started with a Caldo Verde soup, perhaps the only veg soup I don’t mind having. They make it quite well here and the by-two portion is almost as large as a normal full portion. We wanted to have the Sear Peri Peri but unfortunately, they didn’t have any fish available. That also meant no Kana Rava fry. Inspite of that, there were still plenty of starter options, so we finally settled for a Coorg Fried Chicken, and I’ve bookmarked the Goan Sausages for next time. The Coorgi chicken was delicious and had a distinctive flavor. Now I’m no expert on Coorgi cuisine so i dont know if it was a Coorgi flavor, but whatever it was, it was awesome.

    For the main course, we ordered Malabar Erachi Chops and Brown Chicken Stew and to go with it one plate of Idiappam and one plate of Appam. There are lots of options for seafood lovers. even if you aren’t (like me), phikar not, because the options available, that too fromĀ multiple cusines will make you wish you had a larger appetite. We also ordered one Malabar Porotta (yup, we spell it that way there šŸ™‚ ) and a plate of Sannas. We’ve always liked the brown stew here, but this time, the Eratchi chops was just leagues ahead. Except for the Sannas (which were a little harder than usual) everything else was just great. I would also recommend the Mutta Porotta (thats Kerala porotta with an egg bullseye on top). There aren’t too many dessert options available though you could try the Bibinca, if you haven’t tasted it before. Anyways, there’s Corner House nearby, and now Mocha too.

    Meanwhile, 3 Storys is the place to come to, when you’re in the mood for a different, but value-for -money food experience. All of the above cost us about Rs.600, and thus ends this story. šŸ™‚